A Snowy Spring

I am at a loss for words today! I've been in kind of a down mood lately--not a depressive episode, but just a general feeling of "not happy". It may have something to do with this ridiculous weather. Isn't it supposed to be spring? Look at this...

And that was in the morning. It continued to snow all afternoon, accumulating probably an inch and a half or so before it switched to rain. Each time I think the weather is going to break and it'll finally feel like spring, we get hit with snow or just really cold weather. I'm definitely glad we got our new roof (and new gutters!) before it started raining every other day, though.

I'm desperate to do some work outside. I want to work on the landscaping (the ground was literally frozen today), stain the back deck (after having Jerry power wash the house), and just generally clean up the yard and exterior of the house.

Anyway, that's the extent of my post today... hopefully I'll be in a better mood tomorrow! I need to use my light therapy lamp; I completely forgot about it, but it was surprisingly helpful when I used it regularly.

Here is today's random fact of the day:

I was curious, so I decided to do a little experiment and spin a penny 10 times and record whether it landed on heads or tails. Well, it ended up being 50/50, starting with heads! It was almost consistently back and forth from heads to tails the entire time: H, T, H, T, H, T, H, H, T, T.

Anyway, don't forget tomorrow is Transformation Tuesday! Please please send me some transformations so I have something to post ;)  Remember, just send a before photo and an after photo to me at: katie (at) runsforcookies (dot) com and include a description of your transformation.

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New Weight Loss Comparison Photos

The other day before a run (two weeks ago now! ugh) I was trying on some black running tights when I had the idea to have Jerry take come current photos to compare to the same black outfit from January 1, 2021. Of course, I had weight loss goals for the year, so those were going to be my "before" photos. I was still over 50 pounds down from my highest weight (in 2009) but I had gained quite a bit of weight back and it was obvious.

My favorite way to see the body changes is to wear tight black clothing--very form fitting. They are totally unflattering! But it's easier to see the changes in my body that way. Today, while I was deciding what to write for my blog post, I decided to try on some of the clothes I wore last year when I got back on the wagon as far as calorie counting and running. I'm really excited at how noticeable the difference is!

Also, I'm kind of horrified that I'd gotten that much bigger. In my mind, I wasn't nearly that big. It's hard to see myself as the size I actually am (big or small)--it's frustrating! I usually have Jerry take a picture of me if we're going out somewhere so I can at least see what I really look like.

Anyway, here are some fun weight loss comparison pictures. (I had to put the watermark on them because people love to steal my comparison photos to advertise diet pills and such.)

This first one is from the first day I started losing the extra weight: May 24, 2021. I was 197 pounds. The second pic was from today at 149 pounds (as of my last weigh in).

This "before" photo was from June 1, 2021 at 189.4 pounds (versus today):

This one was from July 5, 2021 at 180 pounds (versus today):

This "before" pic was from July 7, 2021 at 180 pounds (versus today):

This "before" pic was from August 25, 2021 (at and was significant because I'd never been able to wear that shirt! I couldn't even pull it down over my chest when I first got it. I was excited to wear it. The second pic is from today, and you can see it fits even better. (I no longer have that cardigan, so unfortunately, I just have to bare my arms.)

Here is a running selfie for comparison as well... 

And finally... I hate to share these because they are embarrassing! But I love what a difference you can see in my body. The weight difference is 194 versus 149. Here goes:

Pretty crazy, right?! I'm so glad that I managed to do the work it took to get here. I'm not done, but I'm happy that if nothing else, I'm maintaining a small weight range. I'm hoping to lose about 15 more pounds.

With tomorrow being Transformation Tuesday, if you have any weight loss comparison pictures that you'd like to share, I would love to see them! And I know others would, too. So please consider it :)  (I just ask that you send the before and afters separately, unaltered/unfiltered; it's easiest for me to keep the photos uniform on my blog.)

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Vegan Recipe Review: Nachos! (Cheese Sauce)

Since I started eating a vegan diet in January, I've been doing this recipe series to try out new ways of eating (mostly) familiar foods. I've always loved trying new things--even if it doesn't sound good to me at all--because I never know what I may take a liking to!

Each week, I pick a recipe (usually via Pinterest or one that is recommended to me) to prepare--exactly as written--and taste. When my meat-eating family is here and willing, they taste it as well and give me their honest opinions. I've been trying to pick a variety of recipes so that I'm not always making the same dish with a different sauce or something like that.

This week, I decided to get VERY adventurous (for me and the ingredients I'm used to, anyway) and I chose to make vegan nacho cheese. I've been staying away from the "cheese" recipes because they just sound so odd to me and I just can't imagine them tasting good enough for me to buy the ingredients needed.

However, making cheese out of cashews seems to be somewhat of a rite of passage when eating a vegan diet. So, I decided to make the nacho cheese sauce first, because I figured if there was anything my family could hop on board for, it's nachos! I love nachos as well, and they've become a food that I usually prepare when we're having people over to play games or have a bonfire or something like that. I'll set out loads of nacho chips, a big crockpot of nacho cheese (the canned stuff), chili or taco meat, and all of the toppings so people can load them up. Everybody loves nachos!

On Pinterest, several random recipes that looked good to me led to the same blog--It Doesn't Taste Like Chicken--and that is where I chose to use this recipe for nacho cheese. She actually calls it "Melty Stretchy Gooey Nacho Cheese". Sounded promising.

So, the ingredients to make this "cheese" are: raw cashews, water, tapioca starch, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, salt, white miso paste, paprika, maple syrup, onion powder, turmeric, and garlic powder. You can see why I was skeptical! (You can find the recipe on It Doesn't Taste Like Chicken. I'll link to it again at the end of the post.)

The "special" ingredients that I wouldn't normally buy or have never used before include the raw cashews (I love roasted cashews, but had never bought raw), tapioca starch, nutritional yeast, and white miso paste. I ordered the cashews and nutritional yeast from Amazon, and bought the tapioca starch and miso paste from my local Kroger--I was really surprised they had the miso paste, because I'd never even heard of it. It was in the (very small) Asian foods section.

This is what nutritional yeast looks like, in case you are wondering:

It's a popular ingredient and even condiment in a lot of vegan recipes, but the thought of it kind of grosses me out and I wasn't crazy about the taste on pasta or popcorn. (It supposedly has a cheesy flavor.)

And this is white miso paste. I wasn't expecting it to be in such a big container--I assumed it would be in a squeeze tube, like toothpaste. Haha! It stays good for a year in the refrigerator, though.

Preparing the recipe is actually really easy. Like all of the "cheese" or "cream" recipes I've checked out, you start by soaking the cashews (this recipe said you can boil them for 10 minutes instead, which softens them; that's what I chose to do). This is what they look like after they're boiled. They expand a little and get soft:

Then you just throw everything into a blender and blend until completely smooth. It was very liquidy, which I expected because the recipe said so. In this picture, I was just trying to show how liquidy it is:

Then you pour it into a pot and heat, stirring, until it becomes the texture of nacho cheese.

The first time I did this, the pan was too hot (I had it on medium-high, per the recipe instructions) and it burned immediately. There were lots of brown chunks in it after scraping the bottom, so I decided to throw it out and try again. This time, I put the heat on medium-low and that worked much better. After a couple of minutes, it was ready to taste! (This is a terrible picture, but it was hard to take a picture with my left hand while stirring with my right hand.)

I didn't want to pour it all over nachos without tasting it first, so I just grabbed a chip and dipped it. I was completely surprised at how good it was! It amazed me that those ingredients had turned into this really good nacho cheese. I had Jerry and the kids taste it at this point, too. The verdict:

Jerry - Not totally crazy about it; couldn't put his finger on what it was. He didn't entirely dislike it, though.
Noah - Said it was better than canned nacho cheese, but he's not a big fan of canned nacho cheese either. (He uses shredded cheddar on nachos.) Still, the fact that he said it was better than the canned stuff was worth mentioning.
Eli - Even more shocking than the ingredients list turning into cheese was the fact that Eli actually LIKED it!

I'd bought a can of nacho cheese for the family in case they didn't like the vegan stuff and I offered to open and heat it, but Eli said he'd eat the vegan stuff. And Jerry said he would too, considering he was going to load the nachos with other stuff as well. Noah just pulled the cheddar out of the fridge. So, I didn't even have to open the can of nacho cheese! 

But.

There was a problem with the texture almost immediately. As soon as it started to cool off (only a minute), it started to thicken and it wasn't something you could pour over the nachos. It had the texture of very thick sour cream, so it kind of came off the spoon in clumps rather than drizzling. I have to stress that this all happened within probably 60 seconds. This is what it looked like after we'd each put some on our nachos--so just a couple of minutes:

Still, I managed to spread it around my nachos. Then I proceeded to add lots of toppings: taco "meat" (texturized vegetable protein--soy crumbles--seasoned with my homemade taco seasoning), black beans, jalapeños, olives, avocado, green onions, and tomatoes. It looked SO GOOD. (There is nacho "cheese" sauce under all the toppings, I promise.)

Ohmygosh, they were delicious! With all of the flavors together, I never would have noticed the difference between the vegan nacho cheese and regular canned nacho cheese. I just wish the texture would have stayed more of a sauce.

When I was cleaning up the kitchen afterward, I put the leftover nacho "cheese" in a container for the fridge, and you can clearly see what I'm talking about. It was one big clump.

The following day, Eli actually asked if he could use it to make nachos again. I was so shocked--but I said sure, I'll heat it up. I added the clump of cheese and a little water to a sauce pan over medium heat. I stirred and stirred and stirred, hoping to get it to a good consistency. Finally, it was sort of saucy, but there were smaller clumps in it. As soon as I stopped stirring, it would firm up again. So I had to constantly stir while attempting to drizzle it on Eli's nachos. He said it tasted just fine.

So, my final thoughts: I am shocked that the odd ingredients produced something that very much tasted like nacho cheese. If I didn't know better, I would have thought it was nacho cheese on my chips.

I'm bummed about the texture! I know I didn't mess up any ingredients (remember, I made it twice!). It's got to be something with the tapioca starch. I read the comments on the recipe and several other people said the same thing--that it tasted delicious but it gets way too thick too quickly.

I'm not going to give up on this recipe, though, because I really liked the flavor (and for Eli to like this was shocking!). Next time, I'm going to try using half of the tapioca starch and see what happens. It's so fast and easy to throw together and it tastes so good that it's worth experimenting a little to get the texture right.

Overall, I'd say this recipe was a winner! For Eli to like it (especially enough to have the leftovers when I had a can of nacho cheese in the pantry) was all it took to convince me. I could certainly see using this for quesadillas, baked potatoes, macaroni and "cheese", as a dip (if I can get the consistency right), and several other things. That plate of nachos was amazing!

Once again, here is the link for the recipe on It Doesn't Taste Like Chicken.

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Friday Night Photos!

It's been two weeks since I posted a Friday Night Photos, so I hope it's not too overwhelming. We'll start with Joey, since he's never in the spotlight. He was so happy to be up on the couch with Jerry and me. I love this picture of Jerry and Joey! It's rare that Jerry smiles without doing a "Jerry face" and while I love the Jerry face, a genuine smile is nice, too. And Joey totally looks like he's smiling.

After I wrote yesterday's post, I ended up taking pictures of pictures in order to have copies of about 550 pictures from when I was a kid. It took such a long time! It's so hard to find the right lighting and angle the picture so that it doesn't have a glare or reflection (especially of my phone that is taking the picture).

I spent some time thinking about how to prevent that and then I made my own little jig out of cardboard, Mod Podge, and white paper. I basically glued the white paper to the cardboard, making one side of the cardboard white. Then I poked a hole in the center, just big enough for my camera lens to show through. I used double-stick tape to stick my phone onto the side of the cardboard opposite the white side, so that the only thing you could see on the white side was my camera lens. This way, when I held up my phone to take a picture (of another picture), the reflection and glare wasn't there (most of the time--it was really hard to find good angles when the sun was out from behind clouds).

I had Noah take these pictures because I obviously couldn't do it with my phone:

It worked pretty good--I did this for over 550 pictures!! It took me several hours, but now I've uploaded all of them and I'm happy to have the "digitals". 

I just finished this book called 'False Witness' by Karin Slaughter. It's a suspense/thriller and it's really good! It's would take forever to get into all the details of what it's about, but if you generally like the same books as I, then check this one out for sure. It doesn't move super quickly, so it took me longer to read it, but I really liked it. And there were several twists that were a fun addition. (And no, I was not reading while driving in this picture!)

This is just a picture of Eli at his baseball game (he's batting). I can't get over how much he's grown. 

Maybe this is something that's already all over Pinterest, but I was pretty excited to come up with this idea. My favorite vegan meals are basically a grain of some sort (brown rice, barley, quinoa) along with beans (my favorite are chickpeas in these types of recipes), vegetables (whatever I have on hand--usually broccoli or cauliflower) and a sauce. I looked up several recipes for sauces and then I took out all the ingredients for the sauces and started prepping them into Mason jars. 

I made four different types--orange sauce, Chinese garlic sauce, teriyaki sauce, and general tso's sauce (yes, I like Asian flavors!). After mixing the ingredients in mason jars, I poured the sauces into silicone cupcake molds and put them in the freezer. Once frozen I transferred them to plastic bags and then back into the freezer.

Now, to make dinner, I grab half a can of chickpeas and one of the little cups of sauce and put them in a sauce pan. I let them cook (covered) over low heat until the sauce is melted and thickens. Then I heat up a cup of whatever grain I already have cooked in the fridge, and I pour the chickpeas onto it. (You can obviously add vegetables as well--on this particular day, I was starving and in a hurry, and just ate it like this):

It makes dinnertime so easy! (For sauce ideas, you can check out my Pinterest board where I have them all saved.) If any of them have a non-vegan ingredient (like chicken broth) I just swapped it with a vegan alternative. But that didn't come up more than once or twice.

Okay, the rest of these pictures are cat photos. I take way too many of them, I know! 

As I mentioned, I worked some more on the little cat "bubble hut" thing that I was making out of the kitchen table I milled down into useable oak. (The top and bottom parts are made from pine, only because I had pieces that were large enough.) I made a reusable jig for my router to cut holes of any size and it was SO easy to cut the hole out of this. The plastic piece has little holes in it so you can nail it to the center of the hexagon. Then you just rotate the router around that point, cutting out the hole. The slit down the middle of the wood was just because it was a scrap piece and it was already there. I've since filled it in.

I screwed in the plastic bubble and attached that to the top/front. (I originally made this so that I could hang it on the wall with the bubble in front and holes in the sides for the cats to crawl into. But Phoebe loves it with the bubble on top and she's been sleeping in there so much for the past week.

The first picture shows how it would be if I attach it to the wall (higher up, obviously). I like the second picture because you can see Duck's face peeking out through the bubble. (I still need to sand it; you can see where I filled in the nail holes) and finish it somehow, probably with paint since I didn't use oak for the whole thing.

This is how Duck and I play sometimes--he plays with me the same way he plays with Chick. I use my hand to grab at him, especially his neck, and he grabs my hand to bite me and "rabbit kick" me with his hind legs. When he and Chick do it, it looks like they're fighting to the death, but they love it. When one of them is tired, they lie limp and then the other one stops the biting. It's really cool how they do that. And Duck does the same to me--he'll be "fighting" with my hand, biting and kicking, and then if I let my hand go limp, he immediately stops until I'm ready again. He sees me as a fellow cat! ;)

This is Duck and Chick after I spray their toys with catnip spray (it's called Meowijuana). They LOVE it and it makes them play and wrestle for a good 30 minutes afterward.

Then they just chillax with a nap in the sun :)

Jerry was taking some comparison pictures of me in all-black running clothes (I took the same ones in January 2021). Duck kept getting in the way, so I had to put him on the bed. But I like this picture Jerry took:

I'll post the side-by-side photos this weekend. There is quite a big difference!

And finally, an update on Phoebe. I have no idea why Jerry is making a peace sign, but Phoebe was happily sleeping on his lap for a couple of hours. 

I love this picture of Phoebe and me. This is when she was smelling the Burt's Bees lip balm on me, but it looks like we're kindred spirits, no? hahaha. My nose was all red from crying. This was what we thought was going to be her last day.

And this is the change in her in just a few days of fluids and eating. She's still skinny, but definitely not like that first picture. She's eating right now, but she wants nothing to do with her special kidney diet food. I'm just going to feed her what makes her happy until we know it's time to let go of her. When I am super old, I just want to eat ice cream and cookies all day long. I'm just so glad she's looking so much better!

Have a great weekend! xo

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Digitizing Photos

I didn't even really know what to title this post! Usually I recap my running for the week, but since I've been giving my knee time to heal, I actually haven't done any running in a week and a half. I didn't plan to take this much time off, but I also didn't think my knee would still be bothering me.

It's frustrating--the pain comes and goes, and it's not bad enough where I feel like I need to see a doctor for it, but it's a nuisance. Whenever I walk and then turn my body, I feel the pain. Or if I'm sitting for a while in one position, it hurts pretty badly when I stand up and walk. So, I may try running on it in the next couple of days and see if the pain is as bad as it was a couple of weeks ago.

Anyway, I don't really have time to write a "real" post, so this is pretty much a filler. I have a stack of photos that I need to make digital (and by that, I mean taking picture of pictures, hahaha).

It's super tedious--trying to keep away any glare and making sure the room is bright enough with natural light is kind of a pain. But I'm not a photographer and I don't have a scanner, so that's just what I have to do. I did it with a lot of pictures several years ago (when I post photos older than about 2007, they are "pictures of pictures"). 

Some of these pictures are hilarious--just all of the horrible hairstyles my mom gave me. I really should do a photos post of the worst of those. They are so cringey!

But here are a few interesting "random facts" that I haven't posted this week, and I will do a "real" post tomorrow:

Hmmmm... no pressure at all! I guess I need to get rid of my "resting bitch face"--ever since a reader complained that she saw me at Kroger and I gave her a dirty look, I've assumed I have resting bitch face. I didn't even realize there was an encounter (she didn't introduce herself or anything), but she said she bumped into me and I gave her a dirty look. I promise you, if you ever see me in public, whatever look I give you is not intentionally a "dirty look"! I'm a friendly person to approach, even if I feel totally awkward. Truly. Ask people who have met me!

I've always adored American Sign Language and have wanted to learn it fluently ever since I was a kid. I took several classes and I do feel like I could communicate on a very basic level (probably with all the wrong structure types, so it would be more "English" Sign Language, where you sign the way you speak. ASL has a totally different structure of the sentences.

This makes me kind of sad! I'd be happy to purchase a couple package of socks and donate them once in a while. In fact, I challenge all of you to donate some socks to a homeless shelter and then report back. (I don't like the photos/exploitations of people who video/photo giving away items for people in need. I do a lot of this for people in need, but I don't give myself a pat on the back on social media and I certainly don't take a video of it. A quiet donation means the most (in my opinion) and makes me feel like I'm doing it for the right reasons. I'm glad I learned about the socks! I'm adding it to my to-do list.

I actually filled out an application to be a volunteer somewhere, but I'm afraid to mail it. If people google me, lots of personal things come out--having bipolar, namely. When people hear that word, they immediately judge me. This was something I never thought about when I "came out" with my diagnosis. The media makes bipolar look like I could have a total breakdown and harm people or something. It's nothing like that! I'm completely sane (even though I like to call my self "diagnosed crazy"--as someone who take crazy pills to make me not crazy). But it is what it is! Maybe I'll get the courage to mail it in soon.

Okay, I really need to get working on these pictures before the daylight is gone. Friday Night Photos tomorrow!

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Wednesday Weigh-In: Week 46

I love this shirt! After my recent post about alcohol, my sister bought this for me. She got it on Etsy and it turned out really cute!

This has been a super stressful week for me regarding Phoebe. I swear, trying to get cats to do what you want is like is like trying to lick your own elbow. That's a terrible analogy, but I couldn't think of one at the moment and I googled "impossible things"--that's what jumped out at me! Hahaha. And how many of you tried to lick your elbow when you read that? ;)

In December, when I was constantly stressed out because of the cats being sick. Side note: If you own a cat or are thinking of getting a cat, please take my advice to not let them play with string or yarn at all! The vet bills were about $3,000 to remove the string from Duck and his subsequent fever/hospitalization! Then he brought home an upper respiratory infection. Having four sick cats was awful. I had to take Estelle and Phoebe to the vet for getting whatever virus Duck had.

The hardest part has been trying to keep the kittens away from Phoebe's food. Her kidney diet food is expensive, and the kittens will eat a whole can in mere seconds if I don't keep them away. Phoebe likes to go in and out of my room so I don't want to block the doors. This means I have to constantly put her food down on the floor for her--where she likely won't eat it--and then pick it up before the kittens get it. Putting it in the fridge isn't ideal because cats aren't really attracted to cold food. But I've been doing my best! Still, a lot of the $2.20 cans (the tiny ones) have gone to waste (or in the kittens' bellies, who are getting heavier by the day).

Anyway, the stress got to me and I didn't count calories more than maybe two days this week. Not a good sign for a weigh-in but I just didn't have it in me to think about that. Last week's weigh-in was at 151.6. And today?

I was at 149.0! I believe it's been over a month since I was at that weight. I'm glad to be in the 140s again. One again, this brings the total to 48 pounds down since May 2021.

I made a meal plan for this week and I went grocery shopping today. I decided to do a bit of an adventurous recipe for my vegan recipe taste test this week. I'm excited to see how it goes! 

I'd really like to have a great upcoming week--counting calories, attempting to run again after resting my knee. Having the meal plan will help a lot. I'm going to make a few vegan dinners and see if the kids like them. I love that they've been open-minded about tasting things. I also want to run again and see if my knee holds up. I still have problems with it, but it's not constant, which makes me frustrated because I can't figure out what it is. I'm so tired of seeing doctors for various reasons. This pain is different than typical knee pain. 

I came up with a super easy and cool way to make my vegan dinners in less than about 10 minutes so. I'll write about that later this week. But it's been super helpful for the last couple of days. 

Wow, I just fell asleep while writing this post! And it's only mid-afternoon. I haven't gotten much sleep the past few days. This is totally off-topic, but I have been having horrible night sweats for the last few months (usually for five days or so before my period). My sister said it happened to her, too, around this age (I just turned 40). I'm assuming it's perimenopause? If any of you have experienced this and have tips for dealing with it, I'd love to hear them. My sheets and pajamas get soaked and I'm constantly having to wash them! But I wake up really cold because of the sweating and then I just can't get comfortable.

Okay, I really need to get to work on dinner before Jerry goes to work. I'm excited to have had a good weigh-in this week, and let's hope it's another good one next week!

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Transformation Tuesday #66

Well, Phoebe feels very loved! Thank you so much for the kind comments on yesterday's post. She cracks me up--the morning I was planning to take her to the vet to be euthanized (why does that word sound so terrible?!) she decided she might eat again. Last night, she ate a few tablespoons of tuna and some cat treats (none of this is her special kidney diet food--right now, I'm just trying to get her to eat anything at all!). And today, she's been eating cat treats and she ate about 1/4 of a can of her kidney diet food.

If she didn't look like a cat skeleton with greasy fur, I would think she's the same old Phoebe. Only now she's a bit more pesty because I took her outside a few times, thinking it was her last day with us; now she meows at the back door, wanting to go outside all day.

Phoebe has been at death's door several times over in her lifetime, but she takes full advantage of her nine lives. I'll have to write a post about all of her "adventures" ;)

Anyway, I just have a couple of Transformation Tuesday posts to share today, but they're good ones! Here goes...

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We moved into our house March 14, 2020 and California shut down March 16. We have a little two bedroom house and we immediately turned our guest room into an office for my remote job and a play room for our cats and kept all of their fun stuff in there, plus my sewing stuff and random overflow. We eloped Fall 2020 and over Christmas really went wild with the cat toys--we gave all of the wrapping paper and boxes to our kitties (Amelia and Linus) to play with! The before pictures are a disaster but the cats LOVED it. The red string you see is hanging down from the overhead fan!

In 2021 we found out we were expecting our first baby and turned the cat paradise into a nursery! Here is my daughter Eleanor’s completed nursery. She was born October 2021! The cats are still getting over the loss of their play room and sometimes sleep in the crib, swing, bouncy seat or car seat to express their feelings! 

To do the room, I used peel and stick wallpaper, which was super easy to install! That took an hour at most. Then I cut some pieces of wood to make a faux board and batten. I used finishing nails to attach it to the wall, filled the gaps with spackle and painted the bottom white. We found the crib on Marketplace, and there is an Eleanor Roosevelt quote above the crib! “You gain strength, courage and confidence in every experience in which you really stop and look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do!” 

Emily

Emily, it looks beautiful! I love everything about it. A huge congrats on the marriage and the baby, too! You've had quite a busy couple of years. My cats would LOVE that room in the "before" state, haha. -Katie

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After I painted and stenciled the floor of my three season room black and white, I wasn’t happy with how the color of my furniture didn’t coordinate… so I bought grey covers! Super easy fix! 

- Sarah

Sarah, while I love the retro look from before, I definitely think the gray matches the room better. The teal throw pillows make a great accent color, too! And I have to say, I love your floors--I'm so impressed with people that do that and have it look so nice. I would be afraid to even attempt it!  -Katie

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Thanks so much for sharing your transformations! I always love seeing what you all come up with :)  Please keep them coming so I can keep on sharing for Transformation Tuesday. If you have one you'd like to share, just send a before photo and an after photo to me at: katie (at) runsforcookies (dot) com. Include your name and a description of your transformation. ('Tis the time for spring cleaning, so make sure you take before pictures of things that you clean so you can inspire me to clean as well. Thanks!)

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An Update on Phoebe

I was fully prepared to name this post "The One Where Phoebe Crossed the Rainbow Bridge". It was a rough weekend with her. (If you missed it, she was diagnosed with kidney disease last week and was not doing well.)

We went to the vet on Friday (why do these things always happen on Fridays when the vet will be closed for the weekend?). Phoebe got an injection of an anti-nausea medication and I brought home pills to give her once a day for nausea. It was actually just one pill and I had to cut it into four pieces--that's how skinny Phoebe is. The vet said that it would bring her appetite back; at that point, it had been three days since she'd eaten.

I also brought home saline in an IV bag to inject under her skin every day (it hydrates her) so I've been doing that each morning.

Still, Phoebe refused to eat. She wouldn't even look at food. I've offered her a whole smorgasbord of different foods--wet, dry, chicken, tuna, gravy, crunchy treats, soft treats--and she did not take one single bite or lick of anything. She looked worse Saturday and then yesterday. I hate to even post this picture because she looks so bad, but I'm not exaggerating about how skinny she is. She feels like a skeleton with fur.

Yesterday, I decided that I was going to call the vet in the morning (today) to ask if I could bring her in to have her euthanized. She is super skinny and lethargic, with very unkempt greasy fur and sunken-in eyes, and she's extremely frail. I made a little nest for her in my bedroom and kept the other cats out. I felt like euthanasia was the best thing for her; she was wasting away. She hated the saline treatment, taking her pill, and she wanted nothing to do with food. She just seemed totally miserable.

I was determined to make her last day (yesterday) as good as I could for her, even though there wasn't much I could do. I turned on the electric blanket for her while I sat and brushed her; she liked that. She has always liked my Burt's Bees lip balm--she loves anything peppermint-scented. I swear she can smell it through the whole house and she used to come running when I put it on. When I was sitting with her yesterday, I put some on to see if she would react--and she perked right up. She started sniffing it and trying to lick it off my lips.

Phoebe has also always LOVED going outside. We used to let her in and out as she pleased, but one time she was gone for four days and it turned out she had gotten locked in our neighbors' shed. After that, I kept her indoors. We also have coyotes and foxes and eagles and other predatory animals in the marsh/woods across the street, so it's safer for all the pets to stay inside.

Phoebe still snuck out every single chance she got. She was so good at it! And when you go after her, she just runs away, only coming home when she's ready.

Anyway, I decided to take her outside and let her enjoy the grass and sunshine. I took her out a couple of times and she seemed so happy to be out there. That was probably the happiest I'd seen her in months. Still, though, I felt at peace with our decision to bring her to the vet today. The whole family did.

And then.

This morning, I got up and opened up some canned food (I still give all the pets wet food in the mornings). I'd been offering it to Phoebe all weekend long even though she completely ignored it. This morning, though, when I set the plate down in front of her, she sniffed it a little. Then she started licking the gravy! I was shocked. After 5+ days without any food at all, she showed some interest this morning.

She only had a tiny amount--maybe a teaspoon--but it was enough to make me question our decision. Since she seemed to have perked up after taking her outside, I decided to give her some more time to see how it goes. I'm not in denial; I am fully prepared to let her go when it's time. I want to make sure I do it before things get really bad (her organs shutting down because of not eating). But the fact that she showed a little interest in food today made me wonder if we should wait.

I remember a vet telling me one time, "It's better to do it a week too soon than an hour too late." And that stuck with me. 

Today, though, she actually seems slightly better than yesterday. She hasn't eaten anything since the few licks this morning, so I have no idea if she'll start eating again. She went to the back door today and started meowing to go outside (that was the first I'd heard a peep from her in over a week). I brought her out there and rather than just staying in one spot, she started walking around the yard. I wasn't worried about her darting off because she has barely walked in days.

After about 20 minutes, she actually did break into a run! I chased after her, praying she wouldn't run into the woods. But she just ran along the sidewalk in front of the house and up onto the front stoop. I brought her inside, really surprised that she'd actually run from the backyard to the front of the house.

She began pacing around the house and she did that all afternoon (that's actually her usual behavior). Right now, she's sleeping inside of the little "bubble hut" I made (I have no idea what to call this thing).

Remember I started working on it and then I set it aside for a long time? Well, I worked on it some more last week and I added a little plastic bubble (when hanging on the wall, the bubble will be in the front). It still needs sanding and finish, but I knew Phoebe would like it so I put a little cat bed in there for her. It's her favorite spot to sleep right now.

As of what's going to happen tomorrow, I have no idea. I'm going to continue to try to get her to eat, but I'm also watching her closely for signs that it's time to take her into the vet one last time. I cried so much and so hard yesterday because I was sure it was the last day I'd spend with her. And now I just don't know. I let the vet know what was going on, though.

It honestly wouldn't surprise me if she turns around from this. The kidney disease can't be cured, but cats can live a long time with it if it's treated with a kidney-friendly diet. Since Phoebe has never been food-motivated, I didn't have much hope for that. I have a hard time getting her to eat when she's NOT sick! However, she's been through some really tough situations in her life and somehow she's always bounced back.

I feel prepared to handle it either way. I would love it if she sticks around for a while, but I'm not going to let her live miserably at her age (she's 15). So, I'm just following her lead!

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